Panasonic stopped selling phones overseas in 2006 and is forecast to sell 5.4 million to 5.5 million phones in Japan in the year to March.

Now, the company hopes its late entry into the smartphone market will help take worldwide sales to 15 million in 2015.

"We misjudged the speed at which smartphones would be taken up in the Japanese market," said Osamu Waki, head of the company's mobile communications unit. "With the rapid shift to Android, we want to catch up quickly."